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Welcome to 2013

So, hey, looks like you made it through the night. So welcome to 2013. Just so you know, this year’s colors are teal and maroon, and the catch phrase that will sweep the Internet’s this year is “That’s so banjo.”

I’ve got things to do this morning. Catch you all later in the day. But in the meantime if you have any resolutions you’ve made and intend not to ignore come January 2nd, share them in the comment thread.

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68 thoughts on “Welcome to 2013”

I prefer to start my resolutions on February 1st, This gives me a whole month to think about what I really want to achieve. Also, when I get started I’m already in a good routine and it’s easier to change something once you’re a bit more settled than trying to get back to work after Xmas and be resolutey as well!

Okay, so, why not, I will send those stories I talked about in the ‘So, 2012’ post to another publisher – and I will write at least a handful of other children’s stories. I enjoyed writing them a lot and liked them when they were done, so, it would be silly not to write more, even if I never find a publisher to pay me for the effort.

Since I got back into the writing/reading thing in a big, ridiculously all-consuming way in 2009, I’ve gained 25 pounds. 2013 is the year I get back into fighting shape. Since the best time to start being healthy is last week, I started a week early. So far so good. No. Piles. Of. Cookies. Not so much on the beer. Stop actually eating all I can eat — a.k.a. “avoid buffets”. Get back to old fitness habits. And maybe, er, not be at the computer so darned much.

Oh. And on that writing/reading thing, a more practical and perhaps topical, though not explicitly banjo-related, resolution: publish *two* issues of my, er, “quarterly” magazine. Only one in 2012. Humbug to that.

I will keep jobhunting until I find one, even if I have to take a travel job or a job in a nursing home (not that those are unworthy jobs, it’s just that they really push my depression and anxiety buttons). I will get my youngest kid through her last 3 semesters without saddling her with debt. And if I’m able to keep writing, I will write at least one work of original fiction to go with the 144K of fanfic I wrote in 2012.

Still keeping to a resolution I made in ’76, “Stop making New Year’s Resolutions!” Goals I’ll work toward: become slender, attempt to resurrect an old friendship, design and build a new deck, practice harmonica. Advanced Gum Paste class, Spring Forest QiGong classes, maybe ballroom dance.

A happy, healthy, prosperous, and wonder-filled new year to each of you, and yours!

Starting a couple of years ago, I became involved with a disabled crafters website, trying to sell some of my plastic canvas tissue box covers. I had some disagreements with the owner of the site, and I only sold one TBC during that time, so I left that site. This year I resolve to try to get a storefront set up on ebay. We’ll see how that works out.

My new’s resolution is to get in better shape, no doubt as many of our subpopulation ought to do. What’s different this year is that I started on this New Year’s resolution in November. I’ve taken on the extra expense of a personal trainer, at least for a while, just because it’s easier for me to make the hour in the gym if there’s someone thinking through what I need to do in the next 30 seconds or three minutes or whatever. I’ve made a lot of progress on sleeping better and generally feeling better. Not much weight off yet, but my clothes are much looser, so the weight is transmorgifying into muscle. The beauty of it, of course, is that here on Jan 1, I’m already feeling like I *can* sustain the New Year’s resolution. Anyway, go me.

My resolutions? Join the local gym after the “Resolution Bandwagon” breaks down and the equipment frees back up in February. I’m already halfway there but I want to bump up my daily writing from 500-1000 1,000 words a day to at least 2000 regardless of other obligations. They’re modest goals, but doable.

Teal? Oh my frickin’ god. Teal? Maroon I like, but teal is so … whatever, you know? Teal. When I think of teal I think of badly dressed tourists at Waikiki. In November when all the locals are dressed to stay warm and there they are, the tourists, out like it’s summer or something. Yeah, not good. And just so this isn’t on such a negative slant, I offer an alternative: lime green. At least it’s green, and makes me think of coconuts. And lime.

New years resolution for real ladat is to figure out how to relate to my soon-to-be-teenage son. Know when to blow off the normal BS and when to bring the Mallet of Paternal Justice down upon his youngling soul–but with loving consideration and restraint.

From the professional side, the one thing I truly desire is to be accepted to Officer Training School. I know that it will be more difficult for me, having never deployed or done much in the Air Force except train, train, train…but it is a worthwhile goal, and one I have had for a while now. This year it might actually happen. Other than that I plan on continuing to kick ass at work, and do what I can to pass my next language proficiency and promotion tests.

On the personal side, I resolve to grow more. In my personal relationships, physical and mental health, and creativity I continue to feel like something is lacking. I reckon this is the year to make those things grow in a productive way, and not from random happenstance like they have in the past.

Looking forward to The Human Division, should there be a tour after the whole series is released I’ll make the effort to meet and get my copy signed. Thanks for all that you do!

Gleonguerro: It’s not so much the teal, it’s the overall poor fashion choices. Someone needs to take the tourists gently in hand and lead them away from the Hilo Hatties discount rack.
Resolved: to get our new kitty reaccustomed to her new life. She was doing okay until the second trip to the vet (the booster shot knocked her galley-west), followed by the night of cacophonous booms from the neighbors. We were just able to coax her out from behind the bed. I also need to come up with some ideas to get more kids into the library; hard, because we aren’t really in a kid friendly neighborhood.

John:
OT and totally not so banjo, but have you seen Slowpoke today?http://www.slowpokecomics.com/
Any thoughts on panel 2? I imagine you’ve addressed this issue before, but how much of the Internet’s pre-cabbage obsession do you think you were responsible for? It did seem to spring up immediately after The Incident.

Goals include attending the gym 3x a week, even if the only thing I do is hit the treadmill for 30 minutes on a given day.My primary gym goals are improved strength and endurance. Finding full time or at least permanent part-time work for 20 hours/week or more. Vending at more conventions; my jewelry is geared to con goers and I sell much more in person than on line. Posting at least once or twice a week to my LIve Journal. I’ve got a couple more intentions, but these I think I can stick to.

Usually, I resolve to have no resolutions, so I have already broken it the moment I make it and can go back to making resolutions I can keep, but this year I’ll try with two big ones:

1) Learn to accept my body as it is. This includes treating it better and listening to it, but my mental whip of “I need to lose weight because I’m fat and ugly” is something I mean to break a throw into the bin.

2) Start in on classes on some sort of self defense before March and keep it up the whole year.

Jeff: I rather like tatoos. They can be very beautiful. They can be very ugly too, but they can also be beautiful. I don’t have one, myself, but it’s something I often consider. It’s a big decision, though, because those things stay and there’s a risk of allergies.

I’m going to update my webcomic every week (on Monday) I’m going to set a relatively low bar of writing 250 words a day to keep me on track for my thesis and giving me a good grounding for writing other, more fun things, over the summer, and I’m going to draw something every day (which is actually quite easy since I am in art school and everything)

If I can keep these things up all year it will really be just so, so, banjo!

If you don’t want to bother, that’s fine, too. Here’s the gist:
Let’s all resolve in this new year to be kinder to one another. To remember that there is a real person on the other side of that blank screen. To remember that words can hurt, and that what we do affects the people with whom we interact. There’s no need for the senseless cruelty I’ve seen in this past year. There’s no need to cut other people down, to try to destroy other people’s lives in some quest for popularity. Just stop, think, and start to treat other people the way you would want them to treat you. it doesn’t matter if other people reciprocate. It doesn’t matter how they treat you. YOU change yourself, and the world will gradually change around you.

Is “That’s so banjo!” supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing? Please elaborate.

And judging from some of the previous comments, it looks as though some people really will try to make the phrase the phrase of the year. By this time next, that school in Michigan who thinks they should have the last word on what should or should not be used in the English language will have “That’s so banjo!” on their list of banned words/phrases.

I gave up on New Year’s Resolutions years ago – I realised I was just setting myself up for failure and depression, and decided to skip them. So, vaguely goal-related things this year:

* Finish one of the two computing units which has been bugbearing me for the past three years (the other one will have to wait for 2014, at which point I will have hopefully finished the first year of my three year degree… ah, the joys of part time study)
* Keep attending the writer’s meetups in my district which have only just started.
* Survive another 365.25 days.

Suspecting your “maroon & teal” information was tongue-in-cheek, I just wanted to note that Pantone’s official “color of the year” for 2013 is Emerald Green. The odd thing is, I have been predicting their yearly colors successfully now for 4 years running. Not sure what that says about me – I have no connection with the art / decorating world professionally, but just get drawn to certain colors now & then. Pantone must have some kind of cosmic telepathy going to read my aesthetic from afar. Like I said, weird. Maybe I should resolve to line my hat with tinfoil …

@Old Aggie: There’s a colour conference held every year, where they pick about twelve pantone colours for the next year, so that companies can coordinate. That’s why you’ll see certain streaks where some colours just seem really popular for a while, and others fade into the background. (When I lived in NC and worked at an insole manufacturer, my supervisor got sent to it so she could come back and tell us what colours would be hot for next year, and we could incorporate them into packaging.)

I resolved to read Whatever as much as possible, and so far, it is working! I also read “Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded” over my non denominational winter (religious) celabratory break which filled up my Whatever quota for 2012.

Giving up alcohol. Not much of a resolution – I hardly drink as it is. Just decided about a month ago that I can do without it entirely, what the heck. I enjoyed telling this to someone special in my life who doesn’t drink at all.

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